Conversations are an important part of our social lives, although for people with hearing impairment (HI), conversations can pose a considerable challenge and can often lead to miscommunications.
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
Audiologists should counsel patients that hearing aids reduce but may not eliminate miscommunications in multi-party conversations, especially in noisy environments — this may reinforce the need for communication strategies training alongside device fitting.
Quantifying miscommunication in realistic multi-party settings provides evidence-based grounds for broadening hearing rehabilitation beyond individual speech perception to include conversation management and partner counselling.
- 01Study measured the frequency and type of miscommunications in triadic (three-person) conversations involving hearing-impaired participants.
- 02Hearing impairment and background noise independently increased miscommunication rates.
- 03Hearing aid use reduced miscommunications, but residual errors remained — particularly in noise.
- 04Published in Ear & Hearing (DOI: 10.1097/AUD.0000000000001855).
- 05Findings support integrating communication strategy training into audiological rehabilitation.
Hearing impairment increases the frequency of miscommunications in triadic conversations.
studysupportedHearing aids reduce miscommunications in three-way conversations.
studysupportedBackground noise worsens miscommunication outcomes even for hearing aid users.
studysupported- PMID
- 42370824
- DOI
- 10.1097/AUD.0000000000001855.
- Journal
- Ear and Hearing
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 2b
- Population
- Adults with hearing impairment and normal-hearing participants engaged in triadic conversations
- Intervention
- Triadic conversation tasks with and without hearing aids in quiet and noisy conditions
- Comparator
- Normal-hearing participants; unaided versus aided hearing conditions
Primary outcomes
Frequency of miscommunications in triadic conversations; Effect of hearing aid use on miscommunication rate; Effect of background noise on miscommunication rate